I noticed a trend recently where well-written reviews are down-voted.

I don't agree with every user review on GOG, but I'm wondering if this is an appropriate use of the voting system.

After all, the primary question at the bottom of each user review is "Was this helpful?" and not "Do you agree with this review?"

Is there a better way to rate user reviews?

Does anyone think there may be a better way to organize user reviews in general?

Yes, people vote down just because they disagree.

Reviews on this site are quite useless.

Yep.

Welcome to the internet

I think the reviews are alight, but the rating system certainly leans a little on the positive side.

I resent that, I went to some trouble writing mine, which is why I stopped writing them (was becoming a chore):

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/mdk#reviews=19
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/another_world_15th_anniversary_edition#reviews=11
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/serious_sam_the_first_encounter#reviews=8
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/moto_racer#reviews=4
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/vampire_the_masquerade_redemption#reviews=19 I think agreement with the review is a good system.

If someone praises a game, but only 1 out of 100 users agree with him, it screams fanboy.

And if someone bashes a game, but only 1 out of 100 users agree with him, it screams hater.

But if someone gave a game 5 starts and 90 out of 100 users agree with him, then you know it's probably a good game.

Is this why other sites are switching to "thumbs up" or "like" without being able to "dislike" or "thumbs down?"

Either way, I'm not sure "liking" or "disliking" is the best way to rate a game, user review, or, well, almost anything.

Maybe if each user review had a button such as "Disagree? Explain why below." then someone could explain why they disagree with a particular review, and start a discussion about the game. This may provide more useful information about why people like or dislike a particular game.

Does anyone else have ideas about ways to encourage more discussion in user reviews rather than just "like" or "dislike," or would too much discussion just be a distraction?

I would think so, since that's the intention. I agree, I vote up, disagree, vote.dowm.

I think the view for user reviews is horrible when compared to that of the forum posts for example.

Whitespace formatting gets toned down and reviews end up looking like a jumbled mess.

Also, the system to navigate reviews is uninteresting.

There are too many reviews and not enough search criteria to trim them down.

And finally, the css (small pale characters on whitish background) for user reviews is just uninspired. It certainly doesn't draw attention to them.

I interpreted the intention of the voting as whether a particular review adds to the discussion.

After all, I judge reviews by professional critics based on whether they're well written and backing up their argument with specific details. I don't always agree with what the reviewer is saying, but if, for example, someone backs up why they think Gabriel Knight 3 is the best of the series with well-written and specific details, then I think that review is valuable even if I personally disagree with the reviewer.

Then again, maybe this is just an issue where the intention of what the "vote up" and "vote down" means should just be made a bit clearer, and it would improve how all of us understand what's going on and what GOG wants us to do with their system.

Well, sometimes the "disagreeing part" would make a review downrateable, imo. Eg, somebody is trashing PS:T for its combat system. I would downrate that review, because I disagree with it and combat is only a teritary feature of that game anyway and therefore this review would give people the wrong impression.

But I generally down vote on the reviews here. Or read them for that matter.

Yes. It helps improve people's ego more, and keeps them on the service longer (because they see they are appreciated by a group of people that liked their stuff).

I haven't written any reviews so I consider myself neutral on the subject. I wait around 24 hrs before reading the reviews on a release. It seems the first few are usually not too helpful and written simply to post the first review . . with exceptions of course. I mark these unhelpful because . . they are not helpful and I prefer them to move down so the more helpful reviews are featured at the top. Of course, I am assuming the review display sort order is based on the helpful votes being at the top / first page.

Some folks do an excellent job of giving me an overview of the game so I mark these as helpful. If more than one is actually helpful I mark them all as "helpful".

The fanboy / hater reviews I ignore mostly since they rave / criticize with out any in-depth about why. "Just take my word for it" is not helpful. I don't mark them either way unless there is a truly helpful review below their position or they are especially, really bad which makes it worth a "unhelpful" click. There are some reviewers which I don't read at all since their past reviews are plagiarized or always raving positive or negative regardless of the actual game play. I don't mark them either way unless there are better reviews below their ranking.

I usually don't read past the first two or three pages so many good reviews escape my attention. It's a hit or miss with some well thought out and informative reviews mixed in with lots of useless reviews. If I have played the game personally I am more likely to mark a bad info review as unhelpful. Hopefully, other community members are also marking the more helpful reviews causing them to rise the top of the review display.

Anyway, this is the method / reasons that I mark reviews as helpful or unhelpful. I guess you could say it was because I "disagree" but from my point of view it about the quality of the reviews.

I think your method is great and probably matches what GOG intends.

What I was talking about before is mainly when it seems like there's a thorough well-written review and 1/3 to 1/2 of the population still give it a thumbs down.

Obviously, we all have slightly different ideas about what makes for a good review, but I was wondering if some people just give a thorough review a 'thumbs down' if someone likes a game that they don't like (or vice versa).